IE (8) and Firefox won't start

[dfstrottersfan]

I have windows vista (32 bit) and IE 8.

Everything used to work fine......

If I try to open IE8 all I get is on tab showing 'connecting' and 'not responding' in the title bar ... it sits like that forever.

Similarly firefox does not appear to open - it is sitting there in Taskmanager it just never opens a window. It will however start in safe mode - I didn't know safe mode existed until yesterday!!!

Opera and Google Chrome work fine.....

Any suggestions on how I can trace what is happening ???

Thanks

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

First question: what version of Firefox are you using?

Next: does Internet Explorer open in Safe Mode (Start | Run | iexplore -extoff )?

And back to Firefox: when you run it in Safe Mode, can you open Tools | Add-ons | Extensions, then check if there are any updates available?

Finally, disable Firefox add-ons one by one, until you find the one that causes Firefox not to start.

Then do the same with Internet Explorer.

[dfstrottersfan]

First question: what version of Firefox are you using?

Next: does Internet Explorer open in Safe Mode (Start | Run | iexplore -extoff )?

And back to Firefox: when you run it in Safe Mode, can you open Tools | Add-ons | Extensions, then check if there are any updates available?

Finally, disable Firefox add-ons one by one, until you find the one that causes Firefox not to start.

Then do the same with Internet Explorer.

Thanks it must be a common add on between them. I didn't realise that you could open IE8 in 'safe' mode.